There are three controversial issues in the field of intellectual styles: whether or not certain relationships exist among different style constructs (style overlap); whether or not styles are value-laden; and whether or not styles could change. The present research mainly aimed at further addressing these three controversial issues respectively by: 1) exploring the relationships between two style constructs (field dependent-independent styles and thinking styles); 2) investigating the influence of intellectual styles on quality of university life and university self-efficacy; and 3) examining how personal factors (ability and conceptions of learning) and university experiences impacted intellectual styles among university students with and without hearing impairment from art and design academic disciplines. The present research adopted quantitatively-driven mixed methods, including a pilot study, a main study with a test at Time 1 and a test at Time 2with the duration of one academic-year, and a qualitative study. The pilot study validated all the inventories among 213 students with hearing impairment and 274 students without hearing impairment. The main study examined the interrelationships among the six main research variables and how personal factors impacted intellectual styles among 256students with hearing impairment and 286students without hearing impairment. Based on results of the main study, 36 participants (16 with hearing impairment and 20 without hearing impairment) were selected for the follow-up semi-structured interviews which explored how university experiences influenced intellectual styles, partially verified quantitative findings regarding style changes, and explained some unexpected results in the main study. Results of the main study generally supported the research hypotheses. To be specific, for all the participants, results of the present research showed that: 1) thinking styles overlapped field dependent-independent styles; 2) Type II intellectual styles tended to be positively related to quality of university life in the first academic year, while Type I intellectual styles tended to be positively related to quality of university life in the second academic year; and 3) students with Type I intellectual styles tended to have higher levels of university self-efficacy, while those with Type II intellectual styles tended to have lower levels of university self-efficacy. These findings suggested that intellectual styles overlap with each other, and that intellectual styles are value-laden. It was also identified that, after studying art and design courses for one academic year, students without hearing impairment tended to score higher on Type I intellectual styles and lower on Type II intellectual styles, while students with hearing impairment tended to score higher on both Type I and Type II intellectual styles. For all the participants, both personal factors (ability and conceptions of learning) and university experiences significantly influenced their intellectual styles. These results indicated that intellectual styles are malleable. Apart from these, intellectual styles were found to mediate the relationships between personal factors and student developmental outcomes among all the participants. Discussions focus on contributions of the research findings to the styles literature and on the implications of the findings for higher education of student with and without hearing impairment. Recommendations for future studies are also made. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Federal and state vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies are putting increased emphasis on, and providing more resources for, self-employment for individuals who are blind or visually-impaired since the Rehabilitation Act was amended in 1998. Additional emphasis is being placed on self-employment because VR system consumers – especially those who are blind or visually-impaired – are disproportionately likely to have difficulty obtaining other kinds of competitive employment in the aftermath of the 2007-2009 recession. The purpose of this quantitative study is to identify variables in the administrative records of the federal Rehabilitation Service Agency that impact self-employment outcomes and earnings among blind or visually-impaired consumers. The file, comprised of 13,998 cases closed in Texas from Fiscal Years 2008 through 2012, spans the national recession and subsequent slow recovery. From the original file, 798 cases closed through self-employment were examined by employment status at application, cost of services and returns on investments (ROI). This study found those who were self-employed at application were 50 times more likely to be self-employed at closure. Those who received assessments, diagnosis and treatment, technical assistance, and rehabilitation services were more likely to be self-employed at closure. The variables most closely related to weekly earnings at closure for self-employed consumers were: gender (male), being self-employed at application and receiving some form of rehabilitation technology. Disproportionate numbers of those who were self-employed at application were 55 to 65 and self-identified as White only with weekly earnings at application above the mean for the entire population of consumers whose cases were closed through self-employment. They received the fewest services on average over the shortest period of time at the lost average cost. Returns on investments in serving those who were self-employed at application were positive but small. The average cost of services provided to those employed at application was the highest. However, on average, they experienced decreases in the hours worked per week and weekly earnings. Thus, returns on investments were, on average, negative. Limitations of the study, implications for practice, and future research are discussed. / text

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Speech and Hearing Sciences / Master / Master of Science in Audiology

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.I.S.)-University of Natal, Pietermartizburg, 2000.

Problems experienced by individuals in institutions tend to be hidden from the public gaze. This is so for inmates of prisons where regulations and bureaucratic structure conceal the daily life situation of prisoners from public view. Anonymity and concealment are enhanced by the widespread misperception of prisoners as an homogenous group. As a result, problems of vulnerable groups, such as people with disabilities, can be ignored. One such group is prisoners with impaired hearing. This descriptive study utilized a multidisciplinary approach to investigate the problems experienced by prisoners within the context of social control. Drawing from selected literature in health, sociology and criminology, the theoretical framework merges the labelling perspective [interactionism] with macro-level theories of social control. The study provides, for the first time, an examination of the percentage, degree and social import of hearing loss in federal prisoners in the Pacific Region of the Correctional Service of Canada. Through the use of survey, audiometric measurement, and interview techniques, an examination was undertaken of the presence and implications of partial hearing loss in inmates of federal penitentiaries in British Columbia. Interview subjects were identified through hearing testing of volunteers in eight federal penitentiaries. Data were gathered through interviews with prisoners with impaired hearing, a comparison group of prisoners with normal hearing, and a selection of custodians. Of 114 prisoners screened, 69% had some degree of impaired hearing, often previously unidentified. Custodians, 86% of the time, labelled behaviours characteristic of the hard of hearing as deviant, and often aggressive, behaviours. Prisoner accounts revealed that failure to test hearing at time of incarceration has harmful effects on performance in programmes and encounters with the justice system. A social activist approach is recommended, to address structural inequalities among prisoners and barriers for prisoners in general. This work indicates that lower-class, lower-status persons may be more susceptible to negative labelling. Prisoners with partial hearing loss, due to the often invisible nature of their condition, are particularly vulnerable to negative labelling. Study recommendations include: 1] Routine hearing screening of all prisoners at time of incarceration. 2] Education of custodians to understand behaviours and communication needs of persons with impaired hearing. 3] A partnership effort between correctional services, the disabled consumer group, and professionals, to improve the situation of prisoners who are hard of hearing.

In this investigation three groups of ten subjects each, ages seven to nine, were compared on common object picture span identification tasks to determine if the rehearsal strategies of oral labeling, signing, or total communication significantly effected their visual memory. Thethree groups consisted of a good learner/normal hearing (NH) group, a hearing impaired poor speechreader/learning disabled (LD) group, and a hearing impaired good learner/good speechreader total communication (TC) group.Subjects' picture span identification performances with and without rehearsal were compared by a one way ANOVA for difference scores. The F value of 62.026 was significant at the .01 level which demonstrated a significant difference among the groups' difference scores. Statistical results between groups indicated that the signing rehearsal strategy significantly improved the LD group's scores on the rehearsed picture span taskas compared to the oral labeling and total communication rehearsal strategies of the NH and IC groups whose rehearsal had little effect on their performance.In summary, this study showed that poor learners/poor speechreaders greatly benefitted from overt rehearsal strategies on a visual memory picture identification task.

There are eight described human herpesviruses. All share the ability to achieve latency in their host following primary infection and may subsequently reactivate later in life. In immunocompetent individuals herpesvirus infections, especially those caused by reactivating virus, are usually mild however in patients with impaired cellular immune function they may cause significant morbidity and mortality. In this thesis molecular and serological techniques were used to define the prevalence of the human herpesviruses in a variety of immunocompromised groups as these individuals are at greatest risk of severe herpesviral disease. Human herpesvirus 8 (HHV8) is the most recently discovered of the human herpesviruses. A nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for detecting HHV8 genome was designed and used to examine the association between infection with HHV8 and FIIV-associated Kaposi's sarcoma (KS). The prevalence of HHV8 genome carriage in the general UK population was defined, as were potential routes of HHV8 transmission. Novel treatments for HIV-KS were investigated. The value of herpesviral genome detection in predicting associated disease was evaluated, together with the genome load response of cytomegalovirus (CMV), a significant herpesviral pathogen, to a novel chemotherapeutic protocol for immunosuppressed patients receiving allogenic bone marrow transplantation. The prevalence and epidemiology of HHV8 were found to be compatible with that predicted for a causal agent of KS, but not the haematological malignancy multiple myeloma. Apart from 1-IHV8, Epstein-Barr virus and CMV were found to be the most significant herpesvirus pathogens in the immunocompromised host. The use of molecular detection techniques, such as PCR, were shown to be of great value in the diagnostic and epidemiological determination of herpesviral infection in immunocompromised patients.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Texas at El Paso, 2007. / Title from title screen. Vita. CD-ROM. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online.

Thesis (M. Aud.)--University of Canterbury, 2008. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (p. 92-108). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Texas at Dallas, 2008. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-105)